The Witcher 3: 14 Ways New Game+ Is Even Better Than The Initial Playthrough
Even imagining trying to play through a gigantic RPG like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt once, let alone twice is a huge ask. The final stretch of the game is incredible, and it's hard to imagine resetting the narrative back to the beginning. But, if the Netflix Adaptation lead Henry Cavill can do it, anyone can. Witcher 3’s NG+ mode has a lot to offer, especially since Geralt is allowed to transfer a lot of his end-game gear into the new run.
Enemies, quests, and found gear is all scaled in relation to the level Geralt is when the NG+ file is created, and he also has most of his formulas, recipes, and monster trophies as well. But, how does any of that make it enjoyable to play through the entire game again? Well, let’s find out.
Updated April 15th, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: The Netflix Adaptations for the Witcher 3 just wrapped up filming its second season, so the franchise is going to see another boom in popularity once that’s out, but it’s not like Geralt isn’t still popular. New players are still jumping into TW3: Wild Hunt every day, hoping to experience a brand new form of open-world RPG. But, there were a few neat concepts for New Game+ that were missed the first time around, so let’s take another look.
14 Geralt Starts With All His Tools
When a player first starts out in The Witcher 3, they don’t have much more than their two swords and the clothes on their back. But, as they go through the game, they’ll acquire formulae and recipes that allow them to craft bombs, projectiles, potions, and decoctions. Stacking all these different variables on top of each other is what diversifies Geralt's build for every player.
But, in New Game+, he starts out with a lot of the tools that took him so long to collect originally. So, even from White Orchard, the tutorial area, he can use bombs in combat, even the playing field with potions, or rely on his Signs more. Having all the tools right there from the start really changes the way a player can approach each and every battle.
13 Easier To Clean-Up Some Of Those Achievements
There’s already a mind-boggling number of different things to do at any moment in The Witcher 3, and including the Steam/Console achievements as well only makes that number even more unbelievable. Some of these achievements can be a real climb to unlock, such as the Master Marksman, Humpty Dumpty, or Overkill achievement.
Quite frankly, it’s so much easier to unlock these things in New Game+, simply because a lot of them require the player to have specific skills or Sign upgrades. Trying to unlock the Brawl Master achievement early on was almost impossible, due to how little damage Geralt’s fists did. But, in NG+, his fists are a lot more powerful.
12 No More Looking Like A Dork In The Early Game
Early on in the Witcher 3’s campaign, Geralt doesn’t have much to choose from, in terms of armor that both looks good and protects him. Basically, it isn’t until Geralt finds or crafts his first Witcher School armor that the White Wolf can actually wear something not covered in frills.
But, in NG+, players get to bring all their armor with them (even the ones in their stash), and while it will quickly become obsolete after the first ten or so levels, they still protect him for long enough to get away from all the Nilfgaardian dress clothes.
11 Roach Stays Upgraded
This is an aspect of the gear transferring over that people don’t really think about much, but yes, all of the saddles, blinders, and saddlebags come into the New Game as well. This means that Roach will be able to run for longer, won’t get scared as easily, and can carry a lot more of Geralt’s excess items. Having all this available from the beginning of the game makes it so much more fun to go around exploring the map and hoarding items, which is just great.
10 Time To Explore The Alternate Paths
There is a lot of variability in the Witcher 3 in terms of the choices the player can make, especially in the more interesting side quests. And, unlike other games where “difficult decisions” only have an illusion of consequences/benefits, choices in TW3 can lead down completely alternate paths way down the line. Because a lot of the impact from certain choices aren’t immediate, save-scumming doesn’t even work well either. This is where NG+ comes in, as players can spend their second run trying out all the other decisions they avoided the first time around.
9 Try Something Completely New
On the surface, the builds in The Witcher 3 may look like they don't have much variability. But, once the player puts some time into mastering the movement, combat, Signs, skills, alchemy, they’ll quickly realize just how variable Geralt’s build can be. In particular, Decoctions and Combat Skills really change the way a player may approach combat in general.
Starting over in NG+ means that a player can spend the tutorial and early game getting used to an entirely new build, and then once they, once again, obtain access to Mutagens, Runes, inscriptions, and more, the possibilities become even more enjoyably complex.
8 Or, Just Try A New Gwent Deck
Gwent is such a fun card game. When it’s first tutorialized early on in TW3, a lot of players fell off of it. But, by their second or third game, they were hooked on Gwent. That said, players need to gather a lot of different cards from all over the map in order to build a strong enough deck. And, for the most part, this led to most players picking one of the four decks and sticking to it. But, since the Gwent cards are one of the only things not transferred into New Game+, it’s actually a pretty good time to try out the Monster deck or maybe even the Nilfgaardians.
7 Adapt Geralt's Build To Any Situation
One of the things that transfers over to NG+ that people might not expect are the Skill Points. That means that every Skill Geralt had unlocked and equipped when they finished the campaign is still there and ready to go in NG+
The game gives Geralt a Potion of Clearance to reset everything too but depending on Geralt’s level, it might just be easier to switch which skills are “equipped on the fly”. After a certain point in NG+, most players will have so many excess skill points that they can just unlock everything, and then re-adjust their build to their current predicament. It’s a lot of menu work, sure, but there are a lot of people out there who enjoy that min-maxing aspect of it.
6 Try & Explore Both Maps In Their Entirety
There’s been a real emphasis on “bigger map, better game” in the industry for a long time now. Every Assassin’s Creed game gets a bigger map, Dying Light 2 has promised that its map is 4x larger than the originals, and even Breath of the Wild bragged about its map size. But, a lot of these games tend to have so much open space, with little to do in it.
Luckily, that isn’t the case in the Witcher 3. It feels like Geralt is stumbling across some new enemy encampment or random encounter every 50 feet, which is why most people recommend not relying too heavily on the Fast Travel system. Frankly, it can be massively overwhelming, especially since it’s not just one gigantic map, but two. Thankfully, NG+ gives players the ability to explore all the areas they ignored their first time around.
5 Speeding Through White Orchard
The first time through, White Orchard is a godsend, but it does take a while to get things going. It's obviously a tutorial area, so there are a ton of “easy” side quests, plenty of Places of Power for early Skill Points, and numerous places to explore. But, on NG+, it might actually be more enjoyable to skip it. Geralt starts with all his gear, so players don’t need the early quests to get them kitted out. All the Skill Points come with, so they won’t really need the Places of Power.
Plenty of people will absolutely enjoy White Orchard the second time around. But, being able to skip it and get right into the main story is a lot of fun. Though, if players are looking for some challenge in this area, just kill 7+ cows in the first town and go up against the “Bovine Defense Force”
4 Find New Love
The Butcher of Blaviken, aka Geralt of Rivia, is known for a lot of different things. His gold eyes, his bright white hair, his body covered with scars, but he’s also known to be a real playboy. And, players have the choice in all of the games of who they want to romance. Sure, most of the time it just boils down to a night of passion, but there are a few who are more serious. The big focus in TW2 was Triss Merigold, but TW3 has Yennefer, Geralt's true love that people who watched the Netflix series or read the books will obviously know about. So, for those who spent their first run staying faithful to Triss, maybe the second run is the time to see how Yennefer's path differs.
3 Do Some Reading, Learn About The Witching World
So much of the Witcher setting is interconnected. A decision across the continent could impact a side quest back in White Orchard for all the players know. And, for those who love lore, there’s so much of it to experience. Whether it's the beastiary snippets, the books that are found all over the place, the random NPCs Geralt can converse with, or even the Gwent stuff. There’s a lot there for people who played the first two games as well in terms of references. But, what’s really special is how much more understandable the plot and Nilfgaard x Temeria war becomes the second time around.
It’s just how these things work. For any film, book, game, or other pieces of media with a lot of world-building, it might take a couple of tries to really understand everything. And, the Witcher 3 is one of those games.
2 Aerondight Stays Overpowered
1 Mess With Mutagens Right Away
The Expansions/DLC for the Witcher 3 are both expansive and very different from each other, one brought back a fan-favorite character, introduced new combat mechanics, and told an interesting story about a man with a heart of stone. While, conversely, the other DLC has new customization mechanics, a new and insanely beautiful region to explore, a more conclusive “ending” to the game, and tons of references to folklore/fairy tales. But, in particular, the Mutagens introduced in the Blood and Wine expansion were such a fun inclusion that only gets better in NG+.
It took so much time originally to collect enough of each color to combine into a greater version, or to hunt down the specific monsters carrying unique Mutagens. But, in NG+, Geralt starts with these things in his bag already, so players can mess around with them right away.
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